Nasdaq, Inc.

Nasdaq, Inc. is an American multinational financial services corporation that owns and operates three stock exchanges in the United States: the namesake Nasdaq stock exchange (on which it is also listed), the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and the Boston Stock Exchange, and seven European stock exchanges: Nasdaq Copenhagen, Nasdaq Helsinki, Nasdaq Iceland, Nasdaq Riga, Nasdaq Stockholm, Nasdaq Tallinn, and Nasdaq Vilnius. It is headquartered in New York City, and its president and chief executive officer is Adena Friedman.

Historically, the European operations have been known by the company name OMX AB (Aktiebolaget Optionsmäklarna/Helsinki Stock Exchange), which was created in 2003 upon a merger between OM AB and HEX plc. The operations have been part of Nasdaq, Inc. (formerly known as Nasdaq OMX Group) since February 2008. They are now known as Nasdaq Nordic, which provides financial services and operates marketplaces for securities in the Nordic and Baltic regions of Europe.

OM AB (Optionsmäklarna) was a futures exchange founded by Olof Stenhammar in the 1980s to introduce trading in standardized option contracts in Sweden. OM acquired the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1998 and unsuccessfully attempted acquisition of the London Stock Exchange in 2001. During the dot-com bubble in the early 21st century, OM, together with investment bank Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, launched a virtual European stock exchange called Jiway. The project was not successful and was canceled on October 14, 2002.

On September 3, 2003, the Helsinki Stock Exchange (HEX) merged with OM, and the joint company became OMHEX. On August 31, 2004, the brand name of the company was changed to OMX. OMX then acquired the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in January 2005 for €164 million. On September 19, 2006, the Iceland Stock Exchange owner Eignarhaldsfelagid Verdbrefathing (EV) announced it would be acquired by OMX in a deal valuing the company at 250 million SEK. The transaction was completed by the end of the year.

The company took a 10% stake in Oslo Børs Holding ASA, the owner of the Oslo Stock Exchange in October 2006. As of September 2016, Nasdaq is not a major shareholder in the Oslo Stock Exchange holding company, which following a merger is currently called Oslo Børs VPS Holding ASA. Nasdaq has, however, publicly stated its interest in eventually acquiring the Oslo Stock Exchange.

In November 2007, OMX acquired the Armenian Stock Exchange and the Central Depository of Armenia. Nasdaq sold the exchange and the depository in 2018 to the Central Bank of Armenia.

In December 2005, OMX started First North, an alternative exchange for smaller companies, in Denmark. The First North exchange expanded to Stockholm in June 2006, Iceland in January 2007 and Helsinki in April 2007. The Markets Technology division of Computershare was acquired in 2006. The acquisition greatly expanded its product offerings and made its client list the largest of all trading system technology providers.

On October 2, 2006, the group launched a virtual Nordic Stock Exchange after merging the individual lists of shares traded at its three wholly owned Nordic exchanges into a combined Nordic List. Companies listed on the Iceland Stock Exchange have also since been merged into the list. OMX also launched a pan-regional benchmark index known as the OMX Nordic 40 on the same date; however, the individual exchanges have also retained their own national benchmark indices.